DirecTV HR20-700 HD HDTV DVR Satellite Receiver

[Updated on 11/14/06. I would like to reduce my rating to three stars, .)

I've wanted an HD DVR box for DirecTV for the past two years. I thought about the Tivo box, but it was just too expensive when it was first released (over I think), but by the time the price dropped, it was technically obsolete. DirecTV has been launching new satellites and changing to MPEG4 encoding, and from my understanding the HD Tivo DVR didn't support those.

I've had the HR20-700 for the past month, and am satisfied with the purchase. If you must have DirecTV (for example, if you need NFL Sunday Ticket, can't get local cable, or live someplace with lousy cable), this is probably your best option. Before I got this box, I had the DirecTV Tivo for the past couple years. I've had other HD DVR boxes in the past, including the Time Warner box in Manhattan and the Comcast box in the Bay Area. This is my favorite box, but it's far from perfect.

Positives:

Large capacity. My wife and I record a lot of TV (we probably have 15 shows regularly recording, including maybe 5 that are daily), and have not gotten anywhere close to filling up this box.

Fast performance. The Tivo box user interface was really sluggish. This box is really zippy.

You can change settings, set up programs to record, and do other things while watching TV (live or recorded). This is a really big step up from the Tivo boxes.

Video quality is what you expect: HD quality. Honestly, I haven't tested this box side by side with other DirecTV HD boxes, nor have I compared it to cable HD boxes. I haven't noticed any weird video artifacts or noise (I'm using the component outputs). Other reviewers may be more critical.

Negatives:

The new satellite dish is gigantic. If you want local channels in HD, you need to install the new satellite dish, which is twice as big as the old one and weighs about 30 pounds. And your neighbors will hate you.

The support for over the air antennas isn't done yet (still not available in mid November).

The box is buggy and crashes sometimes. Sometimes, the box doesn't respond when you press buttons on the remote. (This is a particularly large program with interactive programming, such as NFL games.) Sometimes, programs will get recorded that you can't play back. I assume that these issues will be fixed at some point in the future. (If you're reading this some time after, say, December 2006, this probably doesn't apply any more.)

Fast forward and reverse are painfully slow. The fastest fast-forward is slower than the slowest fast forward on Tivo.

You can't jump to the end of a program like you can with Tivo.

The Tivo guys did a great job with UI design in some ways. For example, when you're fast forwarding through a program and click play to return to normal speed, Tivo boxes will back up a few seconds so that you don't overshoot where you want to go. Tivo engineers realized that people need a second to react, and compensated. The DirecTV box doesn't do this, so it's easy to overshoot.

The new advanced features from DirecTV, like fantasy stats with DirecTV Sunday Ticket Superfan, are very, very slow. Unusably slow. (Honestly, if you're a big enough geek to buy this package, you probably have a laptop and an 802.11 network and monitor games on anyway.)

I had this installed and kept the installer around until I could try out the machine and as many functions as possible. There were several glitches, but after a software upgrade (via sat.) the machine is working perfectly...so far (I've had it less than a week). It's my guess that most of the people writing the poor reviews (on Amazon , CNet, and elsewhere) received bad machines (manufacturing defects as opposed to engineering/design problems) AND/OR they didn't upgrade the software. The audio and video quality are excellent (I won't go into detail as there are tons of reviews about the specs elsewhere including the TiVo killing MPeg-4 capability). Instead I'll just mention a few of the more subjective attributes. The menus are extremely intuitive and come w/out the annoying TiVo 'PPLLTTT'. Once again, with the upgrade in software, The speed matches or betters the TiVo menus. I've recorded several HD movies and HD programs and see no difference between the recorded show and the original broadcast. In addition to upgrading the software, be sure to adjust the audio and video settings. They were factory set to odd settings (example: audio was set to PLII-C instead of Dolby digital and screen was defaulted to 4:3 instead of 16:9). The remote can be set (although through a series of about 20 button pushes)to RF which is really nice, as you can control it from another room. The LEDs on the front are kind of cool, but I haven't been able to dim them as the manual says you can they're a little annoying in a dark room. The HR20 requires a new 5-LNB dish, but the upgrade is nice as

[this dish and the HR20 can pull in off air (ATSC) digital signals (LOCAL HiDef!)**updated below**] --I'm in Minneapolis, so you'll want to check your area for sure. Now I can remove the extra off-air antenna from my roof. About the only negative I've found besides the LEDs is the 30 second skip which takes about 3 seconds to cycle through as opposed to the TiVo (hacker modified)30 second skip, which is instantaneous.

[update 4/23/07 I've had it for 5 months now. No problems. If the naysayers want to spent $800 on the HD TiVo --be my guest. No this machine does not pull in local HD (off air) without an antenna. However, Directv does send local HD channels from the satellite in my market Minneapolis. The only local HD I don't get through Directv is the local PBS channel]

Buy DirecTV HR20-700 HD HDTV DVR Satellite Receiver Now

I've been through 4 DirecTV hi def recorders in 16 months. Every one of them has started out OK, only to then have some critical component(s) begin to die after a few months.

Most recently, the digital (surround) sound that just stopped working one day. Customer service, after puting me through 30 minutes of "do this; do that", agreed it didn't work, but then said, "truthfully, this is a problem on so many of them, we don't want to replace it, because the next one will have the same problem. How about we just lower your bill by $10/month and you just keep it with that function not working until some day in the future when we figure this out".

I was speechless.

I demanded to go to "level 2" the next day and that person woulnd't agree to replace the box until they sent out a tech to do the same things I'd done. This genius arrive and proceded to wipe out all the saved shows on the disc and render the unit fully dead. BAM.

Oops, he said. Happens a lot. REALLY sorry.

We'll send you another unit in a 3-5 days.

Enough. These units are junk and their people admit it if pressed. And there are no alternate sources, as DirecTV won't let anyone else build for their signal.

And, they admitted to me today (when I got to the highest level (3), the vast majority of the boxes they sell (and send out as replacements) are refurbished. In fact the big "concession" they offered me today was to send me (drumroll) a new one.

I give up. I'm going to Time Warner cable and buy a TIVO 3.

Good riddance.

Save yourselves some trouble folks. Go elsewhere. I'm technically savvy and I've wasted a lot of time on this. Don't buy one of these. They're junk.

Read Best Reviews of DirecTV HR20-700 HD HDTV DVR Satellite Receiver Here

After reading several reviews, I was a little reluctant to give up my Tivo (Series 2) for this DVR. But, I had HD service and an HD TV and I wanted to get the most of these two. So, I finally bit the bullet and ordered the HD DVR. After getting it hooked up, I've never looked back. I haven't had any problems and as far as I know, the system has not missed recording any of my shows. I also love that the receiver and DVR is now all in one box, instead of the two that I had with Tivo.

The HD picture is great and I'm not going to get into a debate about whose HD picture is better (cable or DirecTV). I've had both and I personally can't tell a difference. Given the lower cost of DirecTV and Customer Service that is far and away better than what I had with Cable, I'm definitely staying with DirecTV (I've had DirecTV for over a year and this DVR for a little over a month as of this writing).

Compared to Tivo, I do miss Tivo's suggestions and Tivo does seem to be better and recognizing that a show is a rerun (DirecTV records more reruns on series that I've selected first run shows only), but deleting the shows isn't a big deal. I also love all the extra space of the HD DVR compared to what I had with the Series 2.

Want DirecTV HR20-700 HD HDTV DVR Satellite Receiver Discount?

Let me preface my review by noting that my previous HD DVR was the Tivo/Directv HD DVR. It worked fine from begining to end, but I could not get local channels in HD unless I upgraded to the new Directv HR-20 HD DVR.

For some reason DirecTv decided to move away from the familiar Tivo models and instead create their own brand of DVRs. The end result, in a word, SUCKS!!!

The new HR-20 is inferior to the HD Tivo in almost every respect. The only 2 attributes which I prefer on the new DVR are the ability to receive local channels in HD and the new DVR is a little bit more responsive after pressing a button.

On the down side the new DVR lacks the following functionality or is just plain inferior to the Tivo DVR in the following areas:

1. Lack of ability to watch "live tv" on dual tuners. On the Tivo models there is a "live tv" button that allows you to switch between the two tuners and watch the last 30 minutes of buffered programming on both. For some reason the Directv HD DVR lacks this functionality. You can still record 2 programs at once, but you cant switch back to the other tuner and rewind unless you are recording that channel. This was possibly the best feature of the Tivo DVRs and I cannot believe DirecTv left this feature out.

2. Setting a season pass is damn near impossible. Supposedly, if you press the record button on the new remote twice it will set the unit to record all episodes. I have yet to get this to work.

3. Slow motion is a pain in the butt. On the Tivo model slow-mo was as easy as pressing pause a couple times. On the new model you have to hold down the play button for 3 or 4 seconds for slow mo to start. Not only have I had a hard time getting this to work consistently, but even if you can get it to work you have to back up an extra 3 or 4 seconds and time it just right to get to the exact spot you want to start slow-mo.

4. The program guide sucks. Not much more to say, the guide just sucks.

I could go on, but I think I have made my point. If you feel you have to have local HD channels then you have no choice. Otherwise I would avoid this Directv Plus HD DVR at all costs.